


Black Garb, Black Heart

by komorykatt



Category: Tales of Graces, Tales of the Rays (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Jealousy, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Tales of Femslash Week 2020, cheria realizes she likes girls asmr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25410433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/komorykatt/pseuds/komorykatt
Summary: The Mirrorshift had changed so much in Tir Na Nog in so little time, and the rising tensions surrounding it served to make one feeling abundantly clear to Cheria.
Relationships: Cheria Barnes/Mileena Weiss
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7
Collections: Tales of Femslash Week 2020





	Black Garb, Black Heart

**Author's Note:**

> For Tales of Femslash Week Day 3: Petunia (Resentment)  
> -*-*-  
> I had a whole week of cheria/mileena planned out for femslash week but then crestoria drop kicked me so I'll probably only get a couple out. Either way stan cherileena!!!!

It had been a month since the world fell apart.

Cheria watched the days roll by like clockwork, another tragedy arising with each passing one, another problem she was powerless to fix. She was just another new nexus lost in a world so strange and different from Ephinea, yet so beautiful all the same.

The months since she arrived in Tir Na Nog had been pleasant, so many faces all around her, familiar and unfamiliar with a smile upon each one. She understood so little of this world and its bizarre workings of mirristry and exoflection, but the other nexuses guided her, befriended her, and helped her to fit into what would be her new home just as it had become theirs.

One person in particular stood out among the rest, not a nexus like herself yet someone who made her feel as though this world could truly be called _home_. They gossiped and shared and laughed together, becoming inseparable as the days went by. She was the shining beacon of Tir Na Nog, the warmth to fend off the cold uncertainty that shrouded Cheria’s heart; the blonde mirrist with smiling green eyes that sent her heart aflutter. 

Then all at once, the smiles she had come to know had all vanished. The Mirrorshift had irreversibly changed the world as they knew it, but most of all it changed the girl that had lit up her new life and made it so dazzling and beloved.

The day the world fell apart, the Mileena she knew disappeared.

She ran far out of her reach, chasing after a ghost to somewhere she could never hope to follow. Those beautiful green eyes that captivated Cheria each time they met had gone cold, colder than she’d ever seen them. This Mileena was different from the one she’d grown so close to, speaking only in hollow words carried by a distant heart. Her mind seemed to be elsewhere whenever they spoke, her thoughts caught on him, him, _always him_.

Mileena had been glued to Ix since the day Cheria met them, and at first she had envied that. She thought they were the cutest couple she’d ever laid her eyes on, and she wished the bond between her and Asbel could be just as strong as theirs someday. She looked up to the way Mileena unabashedly spoke her feelings for Ix, something Cheria could never do with Asbel. She had a wild and beautiful spirit, so bold and unafraid. She wanted to be just like her.

The more time she spent with Mileena, the more that envy lurking in her heart morphed into something different, something uglier. Cheria hated the feeling, she hated how much she began to instead wish that she could _be_ Ix _—_ always beside her, always in her gaze, looking at her just the same way she looked at him. It was a strange new feeling, something she’d only ever felt toward Asbel, yet never quite as strong as this.

Knowing how much Ix meant to Mileena, it was no surprise she reacted the way she did when she lost him. Cheria hadn’t been there to see it, but she heard plenty of how it happened from Asbel. He told her how the Voidstorm had poured from Gefion’s body, and how Ix pushed Mileena out of the way to take the fall himself. The Stack Overray was set off before anyone could reach him, and all at once they were consumed by the blinding light that changed the very foundation of the world forever. He was lost in an instant, as hopeless cries tore from Mileena’s throat.

Cheria grieved for Ix just like everyone else. It was a tragedy that things had ended the way they did, and her heart bled for Mileena’s loss. Yet why, why did her heart still twist as it did whenever she looked at her?

She would have been devastated just the same if that had happened to Asbel; she was already familiar with the pangs of grief that wracked her heart each time he had recklessly chased after Richard. It was much the same, in fact, always the same. She would always be left behind for someone better.

All the color that had made Mileena so beautiful had been drained from her. She mourned ceaselessly, dressed in that black garb as though trapped in a funeral that would never end. Cheria tried to reach out, to comfort and support her, but she brushed her aside. Her words could never pierce through her obsession to bring him back.

Mileena had become so distant, always running off on her own and leaving Cheria behind. She was so much like Asbel now, so single-minded and obsessed with bringing back a love that she may never reach. Yet this was different somehow, darker than anything she’d seen before. It scared Cheria, how willing Mileena was to sacrifice the entire world to get Ix back.

She missed the Mileena she knew, the one who laughed and cheered everyone on, the one who always made Cheria feel so welcome. She missed the free and bold heart, always so open, always so admirable. She missed her smile that made Cheria’s world fall away, the light in her eyes that held her hostage, the cheer in her voice that sang the most beautiful melody she’d ever heard. 

She missed the shining light that Ix had stolen.

The jealousy that ate away at her was repulsive, and she was disgusted by the way she resented Ix for saving the world. She had no right to feel the way she did. She had Asbel and Sophie here beside her; wasn’t that enough to make her happy? Why had she come to long for something else, something she could never have?

_How could she have fallen for a woman already in love?_

Another somber day rolled by just the same, so many confounding emotions all caught in Cheria’s throat, never to be spoken. She sat in silence, and prayed once more for Mileena’s safe return.

**Author's Note:**

> ask me about my extensive rays au ft. cheria's gay awakening <3


End file.
